When we arrived at the karaoke place, Tohka was the first to rush into the room with an excited look on her face.
"Amazing, Shido! Is this a song buffet!?"
"You could say that. Ah, but don’t just enter songs however you want on your own. You need to take turns properly..."
While Itsuka-kun explained karaoke to Tohka, I asked the commander,
"Commander. How did you think of karaoke right away?"
"Because I thought music would be nice. Arus knows about songs, but she’s never actually experienced them herself. I figured that by experiencing it, something might change in her heart too."
"Ooooh~"
Hearing the commander’s explanation, I could fully understand the choice.
So the commander really hadn’t gotten that position by winning at paper-scissors-rock after all.
"I feel like you just thought something extremely rude."
"What are you talking about? I was just a little impressed, that’s all."
I brushed off the commander’s near mind-reading intuition and waited my turn.
"Waaah~! Hii, listen for a second~!"
"Yamai? Why are you crying?"
While I was quietly waiting my turn and picking out a song in my head, Kaguya came up to me in tears.
What on earth happened to make her cry this hard?
"Pity. I challenged Miku to a singing match, but sadly, I got completely blown away."
"In other words, you got wrecked."
Yuzuru’s explanation made it clear why Kaguya was crying.
I looked at Kaguya with a strange expression and thought,
‘Of all people, you picked a fight with Miku.’
Miku was a current idol.
An idol who was popular in Japan, at that.
Of course her singing skill would be excellent, and no matter how good Kaguya was, that would still be a huge wall to overcome.
In other words, the moment she challenged Miku, Kaguya’s defeat had already been decided.
"There, there. Kaguya is a strong girl."
Seeing Kaguya crying in my arms, Yuzuru came closer and patted her head.
"Even when I loosed my arrow of revenge against a formidable foe, my arrow could not reach the song of the night’s spear maiden and broke apart..."
"Explanation. She tried to get revenge for the culture festival, and this is what happened."
"Huh? But we won at the culture festival, didn’t we?"
I couldn’t understand what the two of them were saying.
What revenge were they even talking about in a fight they’d already won?
"Supplement. Back then, Hii was the only one on stage. We barely did anything. So we wanted to win this time."
"Is that so?"
It wasn’t really fair to call it my solo stage, since everyone had played their own instruments and helped me win.
If I had to be specific, all I really did was sing, play, and add flashy effects.
Still, since the two of them felt that way, I decided to let it go.
"You worked hard too, Kaguya. Good job."
I also patted Kaguya’s head along with Yuzuru.
Then Kaguya rubbed against my hand even more, looking pleased.
"Hehe~ I never lose when it comes to singing~ Right, darling? Praise me too~!"
Miku, who had come over at some point, also stuck out her head and asked for praise.
I gave an awkward laugh and patted Miku’s head too.
"You did well too, Miku."
Then I turned my eyes to the karaoke machine, where the screen showed the number 78.
That meant Miku’s score was 78 points.
The machine here seemed to judge pretty harshly.
By the way, where had Maria gone?
Just as I was wondering where she’d disappeared to, I looked around and found Maria sitting quietly in a corner, watching us.
"Maria, are you enjoying yourself?"
As I walked over and asked, she nodded and said,
"Yes, Hii. It’s very... interesting. Songs are different when you actually hear them."
"That’s true. And I think it’s also fun because we’re all here together."
Being this lively was only possible because everyone was here together.
Just being with your friends is fun to begin with.
"Would you like to sing a song too, Maria?"
"I’m fine. More than that, I’d like to hear Higakieta Hai sing with someone."
"Me?"
"Yes. Singing with someone else seems to be called a duet. I think a duet would be the optimal situation too."
I thought about Maria’s words for a moment.
A duet, huh.
Like she said, maybe trying a duet with the opposite sex would be good for learning about love.
But the important thing here was who I did it with.
Itsuka-kun was... singing with Tohka.
The two of them were surprisingly good at singing.
I admired their unexpected skill and started looking for someone else to duet with.
Yoshino was getting ready to sing with the Fire Keeper.
Mayuri looked like she was about to sing with Rinne too.
Everyone else seemed to be having fun in their own way, so what was I supposed to do?
While I was worrying about that, Mayuri and Rinne’s song began.
"...They’re really good."
The two of them were absolute monsters when it came to tone.
Honestly, they were so good I wouldn’t have found it strange at all if they debuted as idols.
At this rate, I was the only one who felt more and more pathetic.
"Wow, I was already surprised that Itsuka-kun could sing pretty well. If those two are good too, then what am I supposed to be?"
I might be a little depressed.
"Hm. Should I just sing with Miku?"
The only one left was Miku.
Well, who in their right mind would want to sing with a current idol?
"Now then, engrave this deeply in your heart. The fantasy and frenzy of our Yamai sisters’ play! Let the heavenly stars scatter across the world now!"
Hey, that’s not a song. That’s someone chanting an incantation.
The music playing was definitely rock, but what came out of Kaguya’s mouth was a spell.
"...Mana. What is that chant? Is she trying to use magic or something?"
Mana, who apparently couldn’t make sense of Kaguya’s behavior either, asked Yuzuru beside her with a very strange expression.
Yuzuru answered with a completely calm, indifferent face.
"Advice. Don’t worry about it. Kaguya’s illness has flared up as usual."
"Now I understand why she lost to Miku."
Mana accepted Yuzuru’s advice and looked at Kaguya with a slightly sympathetic gaze.
"Keh-heh-heh...! Now then! Let the mass begin!"
Fortunately, Kaguya seemed too absorbed in singing to hear any of that.
"Ah, I can’t just stand around."
I had no choice but to go over to Miku.
"Miku. Want to duet with me?"
"Oh my~ Darling, you really wanted to sing with me that badly? How could you hold yourself back?"
"No, not that much. I just wanted to sing together."
"Fufufu. If it’s my darling’s request, I can’t refuse~"
And so my duet with Miku was decided. As I waited for our turn, Miku nudged me.
"Why?"
"In return, please do one favor for me~"
"A favor?"
At the word favor from Miku, a very, very bad feeling washed over me.
And that bad feeling never betrayed me.
When our turn came, Miku handed me a piece of clothing.
"Miku? This is..."
I looked down at the women’s outfit in my hand.
It looked incredibly cute, like it would suit any of the women in this room.
The problem was that I was the one who had to wear it.
"Where did you get this?"
"There was a sign at the store entrance that said, [Cosplay costumes available!] so I borrowed it myself~"
"Miku, if I don’t wear this..."
"Nope. Besides, I happened to get this too~"
Miku waved the paper she was holding.
That was the ‘One-Day Feminization Date Ticket’ I’d given her as payment when I studied with Maria at school last time.
To use it now meant every possible escape route had just been sealed off.
"Damn it..."
Cursing my past self, I went into the restroom, put on the ring, and changed clothes.
Then I hurried back to the room before anyone else could come into the men’s restroom.
"Eek~! So cute! It suits you, Miyuki!"
The moment Miku saw me after I’d turned into a girl, she rushed over and hugged me tightly.
Everyone else also turned toward me at the sudden loud noise.
"Hurry, let’s sing already."
Feeling humiliated, I thought about ending this hell as quickly as possible.
After all, the goal was a duet.
Once we finished the duet, I’d be able to escape this situation.
"So, what song are we going to do~? I’d love it if you sang one of my songs~"
Miku asked while hugging me from behind.
"What song should I sing..."
Singing one of Miku’s songs was fine, but she had so many that it was hard to choose.
"I don’t know. Pick anything!"
In the end, unable to decide, I pointed at one of Miku’s songs at random.
The accompaniment that started playing was one of Miku’s love songs.
A summer love song, at that.
In other words, the kind of song that would make me feel maximum embarrassment.
"That’s fine with me!"
"...Future me. Sorry."
I offered a prayer for my future self in advance.
Damn it.
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